Since Spencer Torkelson was playing baseball before he can remember playing baseball, why not let him join the Detroit Tigers whenever the season starts? After all, there won't likely be any minor leagues, not in this strange and vacant year of coronavirus. And is he ready? Well, if the phrase "Born Ready" were ever to be applied literally, it might be to him. Torkelson, now 20, was walking around the house with a Wiffle ball when he was 2 years old.
"I can't even remember it, but my family says I didn't care who you were, if I knew you or not, I just wanted you to throw to me," Torkelson told me Saturday.
The Tigers made the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Torkelson the No. 1 pick in the MLB draft last week, and from all accounts they hit a jackpot. He's a big-time power hitter, a versatile fielder, a guy who considers himself a baseball player first and foremost, no matter what position, and who, when asked about his passions outside of sports, said, "I'm passionate about being a good person."
How's that for an opening statement?
Torkelson was sitting beneath a "Caddyshack" poster on the upstairs level of his parents' home in Petaluma, California, on Wednesday night when MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced his name _ and the world began spinning.
"It was an indescribable feeling," Torkelson said. "I felt like l blacked out for a good 10 minutes there _ maybe 2 minutes before and 8 minutes after. It was so special and so awesome to share that with all my friends and family.
"It was definitely 10 minutes that will stick with me for the rest of my life."
Yes. But what about the rest of that life?
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Were these normal times, Torkelson might be playing in the College World Series right now, the culmination of a long season at Arizona State. And after that, off to developmental leagues, the minors, games, games, and more games.
Instead, Torkelson hasn't played competitive baseball since early March, when his coach called the Sun Devils team together and said the series against Fresno State was off. And then, days later, the season was off. COVID-19.
"I was in shock," Torkelson recalled. "I remember being a little upset. But then Tracy Smith, our coach, said, 'Yes, we can mourn our season being shut early, but this is what our world needs. Some people are sick. Some are dying. We need to sacrifice whatever we can for the betterment of our world.
"That put things into perspective."
It also sent Torkelson to the batting cages, the gym, the weight room, and any place else he could improve his game without actually playing his game. But there's a big difference between facing a machine and facing a real pitcher. Three months is now the longest stretch Torkelson has had without baseball "since I was 9 or 10 years old."
And it's likely to continue. In late March, MLB suspended the Professional Baseball Agreement with minor league baseball. The feeling was players could not be provided full compensation until the pandemic was under control.
Since then, MLB has spent all its energy trying to get the big leagues up and running, something it still has not even achieved in theory, let alone practice. Manfred last week said he was "100%" sure there would be baseball this year. But what form and length it takes _ and more vexing, how the money will be split _ is still being wrangled between players and owners.
So here's the question: when the game comes back, is it better to leave a guy like Torkelson in some weight room in northern California, or alongside the big club?
I posed this question to Al Avila, the Tigers GM, on Friday. He said he had just been on the phones talking about that very possibility for Torkelson.
"Not with the major league club," Avila said, "but with the taxi squad. If and when major league baseball comes back, the plan is for an active roster of probably 30 players and a taxi squad of possibly 30 players. ... We were kicking around the idea, 'OK, can we have, after we sign (Torkelson), should we bring him to that taxi squad?' We've had that conversation about some of our top guys in the minors as well."
A taxi squad is normally a group of players that shuttles between the minors and the big club as needed, usually for fast fill-ins in case of injury. But this year, if there are no minor league teams, the taxi squad might be its own special unit. MLB has told clubs to find a place for taxi squads to play, someplace very near the home stadiums. And given a fast "spring training," the likelihood of injuries, and the possibility of COVID-19 taking down players, the jump from taxi squad to big leagues could be pretty frequent in 2020.
I asked Avila whether it would be good for Torkelson to get some innings in against big league pitchers and hitters no matter what _ even if it's late in a game _ and pick up pointers from major league teammates.
"Well, you know, the college game is completely different from the major league game," Avila said. "While (Torkelson) is a really good talent, worthy of (the No. 1 pick), we're a little bit more methodical in developing the player, make sure that he blends in, starts getting accustomed to the velocity and the repertoire of pitches that pitchers can bring to you at a more advanced level.
"Major league baseball is day-and-night difference from college ball. It's day-and-night difference between Triple-A and the big leagues, and day-and-night difference between A ball and Double-A ball. While he has talent to hopefully move up quickly, I'd hate to just jump him in there."
Understandable.
But Torkelson wouldn't hate it.
